


Things Don’t Always Go As Planned

by titanjaeger (oikawatooruisking)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, But it’s my fic and I’ll write them how I want to, Characters may end up slightly OOC, F/M, First Arc will be Eren/Annie, Growing Up, M/M, Second Arc will be Eren/Armin, Slow Burn, Trying my hand at this slow burn business
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 18:14:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13576191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oikawatooruisking/pseuds/titanjaeger
Summary: Sometimes, things don’t always go as planned, and Eren knew that all too well.He never planned to fall in love with anyone at the age of thirteen, but he did. He never expected for her to feel the same way, but she did. He certainly never expected to wind up having a beautiful baby girl before they even graduated high school, but they did. He never expected to lose the love of his life, but he did.He learned, though, that sometimes, the things you least expect turn out to be the best things that could ever happen to you.





	Things Don’t Always Go As Planned

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to start out very Eren/Annie centric, but there is a history between them that needs to be told before I can even think of writing Armin into this. That being said, Eren/Armin is 100% end game. It will just take a while for them to even meet.
> 
> Also, chapter titles will come from something relevant to the chapter or just something that I think fits. This chapter is a quote from Frodo when he gets to The Prancing Pony.

Eren first met Annie Leonhardt when he was eleven years old. It was sometime during the sixth month of their first year at Trost Middle School. Some guy that Eren vowed to avoid because of his disgustingly holier-than-thou attitude was making fun of her clothes, accused her of being too poor to afford something that fit her just right. She seemed entirely unaffected, bored actually, but Eren hated how jerks like him always had to go out of their way to try to make others feel small, so he walked over to them and told him to leave her alone. He thought that he had been rather polite about it, or as polite as he could be to an asshole like Johnny Middleton, but the guy refused and shoved Eren’s shoulder, suggested that he be the one to get lost instead. That pushed Eren’s temper over the edge, so he punched the guy in his face. 

Now, the thing about Eren, even at age eleven, was that he didn’t care if he had to take on one person or twenty people. If he was fighting to defend someone else or for some other worthy cause, he’d take on the entire world without a single thought about what might happen to him. And that included the girl with light blonde hair and the prettiest eyes he had ever seen, whether she cared what people said about her or not.

After Eren had thrown that first punch, the guy’s two friends decided that they’d do the fighting for him and jumped Eren. They had him down on the ground in less than a few seconds, and one kicked Eren in his stomach while the other grabbed his hair and told him about what a mistake he had made. Eren knee he had no way out of the position he’d found himself in, but he certainly did try. The pummeling didn’t last long enough for him to find out if he’d be able to free himself somehow, though, because before he knew it, the girl had managed to sweep the guy kicking Eren off his feet and had punched the one holding onto Eren’s hair straight in his nose when he’d looked up to see what was going on. It was a beautiful, most welcome sight, and he found himself in awe of her immediately. The only other people he knew who could fight like her were Levi and Mikasa, so he had nothing but respect and a million thanks to give her, even if he’d probably only be able to spit out a single, small ‘thank you’ later. 

“What on God’s green Earth is going on over here?”

Eren, who had sprawled on his back in order to get a good kick at the one who had kicked him repeatedly, immediately froze and groaned. He knew that voice. It was Mrs. Goodall, and she absolutely hated him. She’d send him to the principal’s office and call his mom for sure.

Unfortunately for them, good old Johnny was in her good graces, and he put on a good sob story about how Eren and the girl — Annie, he said her name was — had just jumped them out of nowhere, and then Ron and Michael started to defend themselves. He laid it on so thick that Eren was convinced that the kid should definitely be an actor one day. 

“Eren, Annie,” Mrs. Goodall said sternly. “Principal Washington’s office. Now.”

She walked them there and sat them in the two chairs outside of his office when the secretary told them they’d have to wait a few minutes. Mrs. Goodall made sure that the secretary would keep an eye on them, told her that they were no good troublemakers and couldn’t be trusted, before she went to go check on the two boys in the infirmary. Eren felt rather irritated about the fact that he looked worse than the other two but was stuck waiting to see the principal.

Eren looked over at Annie and wondered if she was as mad as he was that they were there under false pretenses, but she didn’t show any outward signs of any kind of emotion, let alone irritation, so he turned his head back to the front and stared down at his torn up Converse until the principal was ready to see them. 

Principal Washington was a nice man, but he had zero tolerance for violence of any kind. He understood that self-defense was important, but he also knew that Eren had anger issues and had a tendency to start the fights he found himself in. He always praised Eren for fighting for what he believed in, but he admonished him at the same time for going about it the wrong way. Every single time Ere found himself in Principal Washington’s office, he wound up being lectured about how he should handle himself when he came across something that angered him and always gave him examples of public figures, such as Martin Luther King Jr, and how they knew that in order to ever be able to change anything, they had to do it peacefully or otherwise put themselves in even more risk than they already were just for wanting to change anything in the first place.

He liked Principal Washington. He was a good man, and he never spoke to Eren in a way that made him feel stupid or wrong for being angered by others being cruel for any reason. He liked that he actually took time to figure out why Eren got into fights and then understood wholeheartedly why he felt as if he needed to intervene. He even believed Eren when he said that Johnny lied about how innocent he and his friends were in that whole fiasco. In the end, though, no matter how much he liked Principal Washington, the man always had to call Eren’s mother, and that was the one thing he hated about being sent to his office. 

Eren’s mother and Annie’s father got to the school at the same time, and after they sat and spoke to the principal, they walked out and spoke to their children about the matter. Eren’s mom fussed over him. She worried over his bruises, reprimanded him for fighting, and told him that he was brave for standing up for someone else. Annie’s father simply told her that he was proud of her for giving those kids a well deserved ass kicking. They both parted ways and went home for the day, but Eren spent the rest of his afternoon wondering about Annie and whether or not she’d want to be his friend.

☽ 

The week after their suspension, Eren sought Annie out during their recess. He found her in the exact same place as the day they got into the fight, but she was thankfully alone. She was reading a book, a pretty thick one from what Eren could tell, and Eren debates whether he should go over to her or not. He wanted to talk to her, but he didn’t want to interrupt her either. After a few moments of deliberation, he decided that there was no time like the present and walked over to her. She looked up at him when his shadow fell over her, and though she showed no signs of recognition, he had a strong feeling that she hadn’t forgotten him.

“Hi,” Eren said. “My name’s Eren Jaeger. I’m—“

“I know who you are,” Annie interrupted. Eren silently reveled in the fact that his gut feeling was right. “Mrs. Goodall’s honeroom, always hanging out with the girl with the red scarf, the one who thought he needed to defend me last week. You’re blocking my light.”

Eren stepped to his left. “I, ummm... I didn’t mean to get you suspended,” Eren said sheepishly. “Your dad wasn’t mad, was he?”

Annie scoffed. “No. He doesn’t care if I fight as long as it’s for a good reason. Getting those guys off your back was good enough reason for him.” She paused for a second to pull a bookmark out of the pocket of her jean jacket. She marked her place and then closed her book before she looked back up at Eren. “You can sit, you know.”

Eren thanked her and plopped down unceremoniously. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Eren remembered that he was probably supposed to keep the conversation going.

“So, uhh, what book are you reading?”

Annie tapped the book that she held in her lap and said, “Lord of the Rings. I’m getting close to the end of book one. Do you read?”

“Not really, but I’ve seen the movies,” Eren replies honestly. “My friend Levi says that I’m missing out big time. Says the books are a million times better but that the movies do them enough justice to not be worthy of any hate. Is he right?”

“So far, yeah,” she said. “Who’s your favorite character?”

Eren thought about that for a moment. He’d never really thought about it before, but now that he was, he couldn’t help but think of the trees. He told her as much, and she nodded her head in acknowledgment.

“Yeah, they’re pretty cool. Definitely up there on my list,” Annie agreed. “They’re called Ents, by the way.”

“So who’s your favorite character?”

“My favorites are Gandalf, Gimli, and Sam,” she replied. 

“Huh. I can see why. They’re all some pretty good characters, but why Sam? He’s not as important as the other two.” Annie scrunched her nose up at him when he said that, but Eren couldn’t understand why. “What? Did I say something stupid?”

“Yeah, you did,” Annie told him. Eren couldn’t help but think of Levi in that moment. She was blunt, just like him. “Without Sam, Frodo would have never made it to Mount Doom. Sam was what kept Frodo alive, what kept him from succumbing to the powers of the ring. He was the most important character in the whole story.”

Eren nodded his head. “Okay, but what does ‘succumbing’ mean?”

Annie rolled her eyes. “Do you not own a dictionary? To succumb means to fail to resist. When you succumb to something, you crack under the pressure, basically, and end up doing something that you normally wouldn’t do.”

“Right,” Eren said. “That makes sense. You must be really smart.”

She shrugged. “Eh, not really. I do well enough, but I don’t go out of my way for academics.”

“I have to study all the time. My parents aren’t necessarily pressuring me to be the top student or anything, but I feel like I’d let them down if I don’t try to be that for them, you know?” Eren reaches down and began to pick at the grass. He pulled blade after blade and slightly relished in the pain some of them brought him when they sliced his finger.

“Not really,” Annie said. He looked back up at her and found her studying him curiously. It was the first time he looked at her and saw anything other than blatant indifference.

“Umm, I never, uhh... thanked you for stepping in last week. A few more kicks, and I might’ve puked all over him.”

Annie scoffed again. “I wouldn’t have had to step in if you would’ve kept to yourself, but I guess telling you that is like telling a baby not to cry when it needs something.”

“What’s that supposed to mean,” Eren asked incredulously.

“It means you’re so unbelievably selfless, and I still don’t understand why you keep getting into fights over other people’s problems,” she said, completely unfazed. “I didn’t need you to tell those guys to back off; what they said never bothered me, not one bit, but you stepped in anyway. Why?”

Eren looked at her as if she’d grown a second head. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t have asked.”

Eren looked away from her, toward the playground. No one other than his mom and Principal Washington has ever asked why he did what he did. Now that he thought about it, though, no one ever really stuck around long to talk to Eren about anything, let alone books and whatnot. He wondered how long it would be before she realized that he was nothing but trouble and started to ignore him, too. Part of him hoped she never did, a huge part of him.

“I just don’t like when people are mean for no reason,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense. Why should someone of a different race, social status, or sexuality be mocked or hated just for being different than jerks like Johnny Middleton? Why should people like me stand by and just let them do it? It’s not right, and I won’t just sit back while someone else is being treated unfairly. No matter how bad I get hurt in the process.”

Annie gave him a soft smile. It was so small that he almost thought he’d imagined it. “That’s very admirable, Eren. I kind of wish I had that mindset. To just be able to care enough to go out there and fight for others.. Dad says the world could really use more people like you.”

“But you helped me when you didn’t have to,” Eren reminded her. “Even got suspended for it.”

“Yeah, but that was only because you were getting beat up because of me,” she said. “I’ve seen you get into other fights before, but I’d never stepped in because I just couldn’t bring myself to care enough to do so.” She paused and looked up toward the sky, put her head back against the wall she sat against. “I hope that doesn’t make you think I’m a bad person.”

“No, I don’t think that,” Eren said. “It’s not in everyone’s nature to be like me. It’s better, actually, that not everyone’s like me. I’m far more trouble than I’m worth.”

“Says who,” Annie asked. 

“Almost everyone.” The bell rang immediately after, and he heard Mikasa call his name. He looked over to her, and she waved her hand at him, gestures for him to get his ass up and get to class. Just as he and Annie got to their feet, Annie spoke and managed to shock him.

“Well, they’re all wrong.” Eren stared at her, and she smiled back at him. “See you later, Eren.”

Mikasa has to run over to him and drag him to class.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/Constructive Criticism very welcome. <3


End file.
